That Time Steve Jobs Said It’s Good to Have an Enemy

Remember the good ol’ days when Apple was an underdog fighting the Wintel hegemony? OK, they weren’t necessarily “good,” but they were fun. It’s good to have an enemy, after all. That’s what Steve Jobs believed, as noted by a wonderful account from Ken Segall about why Macs have never had “Intel Inside” branding on them. In Apple’s early days, Steve Jobs made IBM the enemy. As Mr. Segall put it, the massive success of Intel’s own “Intel Inside” ad campaign made it easy for Apple of the late 1990s to make the entire PC platform the enemy. Having that enemy keeps employees and fans alike focused on the company and the platform (in this case), a dream scenario for the company. Steve Jobs was an expert at stoking those fires, and then reversing course and embracing the enemy as a long lost—and necessary—friend. If you love Apple lore, go read this story ASAP. It’s terrific.

Cool insight. Reminds me of the wars of the 20th century. At the start of the 20th century, we had the wright brothers barely lifting off the ground in a little plan. But 50 yrs later, after two (horrible) wars that involved a lot of rocketry, we were playing golf on the moon. A horrendous cost, but undeniable technological progress thanks to two wars and the Cold War.